At the same time, in Uruk, at the northern wall defenses...
Hordes of magical beasts surged out from the Cedar Forest. Beneath a storm of smoke and dust, the vast army radiated a savage, murderous aura, stretching endlessly across the horizon.
And worse—it wasn't just the usual faces like Ugallu, Uridimmu, Mušḫuššu, and the Soul-Eater Beasts.
In the span of just over ten days, the rapidly multiplying Three-Horned Lion-Dragons and Wyverns had joined the fray as standard units, significantly boosting the enemy's aerial dominance.
With overwhelming pressure bearing down, the enemy's airborne forces—led by the Blue Dragon Bašmu—plunged forward like a black tide.
"Dingirs, all batteries—open fire!"
"Adjust elevation! Lock trajectory! Fire!"
Leonidas stood atop the wall, watching intently. At the perfect moment, he slammed his shield and roared the command.
Magus and shrine priestesses, faces contorted with anguish, loaded swords, spears, pillars, and other rune-inscribed artifacts into the cannon mouths—each one a precious treasure.
The soldiers spun the winches, raising the cannons' angles skyward.
With the ritual spells activated, the weapons—now infused with divine Mystery—were fired like worthless scrap into the sky.
Mid-flight, the inscribed runes triggered a cascade of disintegration and magical fission. The priceless artifacts shattered, unleashing massive Ether surges.
Immediately, beams of light rained down in dense waves, piercing the sky like divine blades and tearing apart the majority of the Wyvern swarms.
With the dull sound of bodies being torn through and the howls of dying beasts, dragon scales, bat wings, shredded meat, and mangled lion-dragon parts spilled across the ground in a bloody storm.
Such extravagance!
The mystical wealth Uruk had hoarded over centuries was now being burned as single-use ammo.
It was like hurling piles of solid gold to smash through mass-produced magical beasts.
The Magi at the observatory, the shrine maidens, and temple priests—all of whom had personally sacrificed Uruk's rare magical heritage—were wracked with guilt. Their hearts bled. Their hands trembled.
But it worked.
After several devastating volleys of anti-air bombardment, more than seventy percent of the previously cloud-thick Wyverns and Three-Horned Lion-Dragons had been annihilated.
The aerial threat pressing down on Uruk lifted almost instantly.
The remaining few hundred Dragonkind magical beasts regrouped during the pause between the Dingir volleys. Under Bašmu's lead, they formed up and dove.
Yet the Spartan phalanxes stationed at the chokepoints remained immovable. Calm and unwavering, they held their shields high and braced their spears.
Leonidas, carefully gauging the range, curled his lips into a cold smile and slashed his right hand down.
In a flash, nets woven from beast sinew, javelins engraved with cuneiform runes, and grappling hooks coated in toxic enchantments all launched into the air.
The low-flying Dragonkind horde was once again shredded—another fifth wiped out in a heartbeat.
Leonidas followed up with a rhythm-shifting barrage on his shield. From the many watchtowers lining the Babylonian defenses came a long, mournful horn call.
"Chirp! Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!"
Along the northern wall, one by one, hidden gates opened. Smoke and dust billowed.
Then, with a piercing cry, nearly a thousand secretly deployed Quetzalcoatlus burst from the ground, wings snapping wide as they launched from sharp angles into the sky.
The enemy's Wyverns and Three-Horned Lion-Dragons were instantly split and intercepted by the sudden arrival of this aerial force, leaving them no time to regroup.
The high-ranking Great Dragon Bašmu, nearly akin to a Divine Spirit, bellowed furiously as chaos broke out among his ranks.
But before he could release the fury of his draconic majesty, a clawed gauntlet came crashing down on his skull.
The blow struck like lightning. The colossal dragon's vision blurred, and with a stifled groan, he spiraled down into the distant wastelands.
"Tch. Kuku and her obsession with ordering jaguars around..."
At some point, the Jaguar Warrior had slipped into the airborne formation atop a Quetzalcoatlus. She muttered habitually, yanked her reins, and dived toward Bašmu's crash site.
Perfect! The Goddess of Demonic Beasts' Dragonkind army is crippled! This time, Uruk will stand strong!
Having once suffered a crushing setback here, Leonidas couldn't suppress his excitement. He slapped the city wall hard with his right hand.
But in the very next moment, a dull roar echoed through the air.
Clusters of dark green liquid—each the size of a watermelon and reeking of acrid stench—hurtled toward the city wall.
"Fall back! Raise your shields!"
"Magus, deploy protective spells!"
"Priestesses, prepare to dispel the ritual!"
Leonidas, a seasoned commander, acted on instinct, his battlefield intuition razor-sharp. His orders came swiftly, just as the enemy's assault struck.
Hundreds of dark green liquid orbs exploded both inside and outside the city walls.
Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!
In an instant, any soldier unfortunate enough to be splashed was reduced to pus, blood, and bare bone. Within seconds, purplish-red veins spread from the wounds to their hearts, and they collapsed in agony, howling as black-purple blood poured from every orifice.
Even stone blocks layered with multiple protective enchantments began to hiss and rot, dissolving with trails of white smoke rising into the air.
The drifting fumes, carried by the breeze, quickly spread. The stench turned stomachs. Some with weaker constitutions were already coughing up blood.
Thankfully, Leonidas had anticipated this. The protective enchantments and purification rituals preemptively deployed by the Magi and priests managed to contain the spread of the deadly affliction just in time.
What terrifying poison!
Staring down at the grotesque stains on the ground—once soldiers, now nothing more than twisted, bloody silhouettes—Leonidas drew in a sharp breath. His thoughts immediately turned to a notorious creature from Greek legend.
The Hydra—nine-headed serpent of death.
His ancestor Heracles had been driven mad by its venom and eventually took his own life in unbearable agony.
Even the centaur sage Chiron had succumbed to its poison.
Looking up, Leonidas spotted what had emerged from the wasteland: a tide of magical beasts closing in. Among them were over a hundred towering creatures, each more than ten meters tall, their massive bodies crowned with seven writhing snake heads.
Seven-headed serpents—Mušmaḫḫū! Known also as the Exalted Serpents. Their origins mirrored that of the Hydra.
Fortunately, these weren't the original beasts birthed by Tiamat, the Goddess of Beginning.
Due to heavy bloodline degradation and being force-grown through condensed mana, these serpents were pale imitations—more bark than bite. Their deadliest threat amounted to vomiting a few toxic blasts.
Had they been the real deal, none of the defenders would have stood a chance. All they could've done was run.
Beyond the Mušmaḫḫū, Leonidas also noticed several new breeds in the enemy ranks that had never appeared before.
Kusarikku—the Bull-Headed Beasts. Kulullû—the Fishmen.
It seemed Uruk wasn't the only one rapidly evolving in wartime.
After devouring countless lives, the Goddess of Demonic Beasts had further perfected the authority of the Mother of Genesis, mass-producing a newer, more complete version of the Eleven Offspring!
A shadow passed through Leonidas's eyes. Though unease gnawed at him, he forced it down and quickly redirected the Dingir to focus bombardment on the Mušmaḫḫū, those massive poison-spewing siege beasts.
Just as the battle reached a deadlock, a thunderous crash sounded—giant chain links, like the anchors of some colossal ship, slammed down onto the city wall.
Kingu had arrived!
As that massive shadow loomed over the northern wall, threatening to crush it, a spinning Aztec weapon shot in, slicing through the air with a violent shockwave and just barely knocking the chains aside.
Quetzalcoatl, clad in vibrant South American garb and gripping a painted vine shield, landed at the front lines with a radiant smile.
...
(100 Chapters Ahead)
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